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Functional Affinities Between Ōkuninushi & Daikokuten (Links Jump to Kakugakuin University's Encyclopedia of Shinto)

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Functional Affinities Between Ōkuninushi & Daikokuten (Links Jump to Kakugakuin University's Encyclopedia of Shinto) Notebook. Slides 35 & 36. Condensed Visual Classroom Guide to Daikokuten Iconography in Japan. Copyright Mark Schumacher, 2017. Functional Affinities Between Ōkuninushi & Daikokuten (Links jump to Kakugakuin University's Encyclopedia of Shinto) The conflation of Ōkuninushi 大国主神 with Daikokuten 大黒天 in Japan’s Edo era (1603-1867) was a late and artificial development, one engineered by Izumo Shrine 出雲大社 (Shimane Prefecture) to piggyback off Daikokuten’s widespread popularity and thereby raise funds for the impoverished shrine. Prior to the late 17th century, Ōkuninushi was mostly unknown among clerics and commoners. Why? Because his mythology appeared almost solely in Japan’s oldest text, the Kojiki 古事記 (Records of Ancient Matters; 712 CE) – and the Kojiki lingered in obscurity until its importance was “rediscovered” by Motoori Norinaga 本居宣長 (1730-1801). Ōkuninushi also appeared in the Nihon Shoki 日本書紀 (Chronicles of Japan; 720 CE), but this latter work omitted nearly all of his mythology. In other words, Ōkuninushi (an Izumo deity) was largely ignored until the mid-17th century, when the priests of Izumo Shrine began to aggressively conflate him with Daikokuten. Why Ōkuninushi? It is a relevant question, for Izumo Shrine’s main deity in medieval times was Susano-o 須佐之男, not Ōkuninushi. In classical Japanese mythology, Ōkuninushi is one of Susano-o’s descendants and the undisputed leader of the earthly deities. What caused Izumo’s clerics to conflate Ōkuninushi with Daikokuten? I cannot say with certainty. My guess is that it sprang primarily from Ōkuninushi’s close familial ties with Ōmononushi 大物主命 (kami of Mt. Miwa). Ōmononushi had been invited to Mt. Hiei in the 7th or 8th century. By the early 14th century, he had fused with Daikokuten (another important Mt. Hiei deity). See Slide 35. In similar fashion, Izumo's 17th-century conflation strategy undoubtedly involved preexisting affinities between Daikokuten and Ōkuninushi, along with some inventive thinking by Izumo authorities. Various affinities (incidental and major) are presented below. For a review of Izumo’s successful fusion (confusion) of Ōkuninushi and Daikokuten, see Yijang Zhong (2012). 1. INCIDENTAL. The 13th-C Japanese text Chiribukuro 塵袋 (p. 30 online) says Ōkuni 大国 and Daikoku 大黒 can BOTH be pronounced DAIKOKU. Says Iyanaga Nobumi (email exchange, 2017): “This may represent a possible conflation of the two deities, but it was more likely simple wordplay, without much implication.” 2. INCIDENTAL. Early 14th-C. Japanese text Miwa Daimyōjin Engi 三輪大明神緣起 (p. 29 online) equates the Miwa deity (Ōmononushi) with Daikokuten. Ōmononushi is one of Ōkuninushi’s many alternative names. It must be noted that medieval texts rarely used these names or other names found in Japan’s classical mythologies. Instead of referring to Ōmononushi, for example, medieval documents most often referred to Miwa Daimyōjin 三輪大明神 or Sannō Gongen 山王権現. The supreme sun goddess Amaterasu, moreover, was most often rendered in medieval texts as Tenshō Daijin 天照大神. Writes Iyanaga Nobumi (email exchange, 2017): “Today’s standard usage of classical names was only established in the Meiji era (1868-1912), although the practice was already common in the Edo era (1603-1867).” 3. INCIDENTAL. Both are associated with snakes. Early images of Mahākāla/Daikokuten (M/D) are often adorned with snakes or with M/D standing atop a snake (see Slide 7). Both the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki say the true form of Ōmononushi (aka Ōkuninushi) is a snake. See Kojiki, Book 2, Ch. 66, Philippi, p. 203-204. 4. INCIDENTAL. Both are landlord deities. Ōkuninushi is the original landlord of all Japan, whereas M/D was associated with India’s earth goddess (Pṛthivī 地天) in the writings of central-Asian monk Huìlín 慧琳 (737-820). See T.54.2128.366b14-17. In the 11th-C. Japanese text Daikoku Tenjin Hō [T.21.1287.0355b13], Daikokuten is portrayed as a manifestation of the earth deity Kenrō Jiten 堅牢地天. Asks Iyanaga Nobumi (email exchange, 2017): ”Was Kenrō Jiten conceived as male or female? Unclear, but the Japanese compiler of this 11th-C. text (monk Jingai 神愷) likely considered the deity as male.” In the early 14th-C. Japanese text Keiran Shūyōshū 渓嵐拾葉集, Daikokuten unequivocally appeared to Saichō 最澄 (767–822; founder, Japan’s Tendai school) as an old man [T.76.2410.0634b06]. See Slides 35 & 36. 5. INCIDENTAL. Both are associated with the underworld. M/D is a chthonian deity. He was sometimes assimilated to Kālāratri (J = Kokuanten 黒暗天), the consort of King Yama (J = Enma 閻魔), the lord of the underworld, the world of the dead. Moreover, the flesh-eating female Ḍākinīs (Slide 33) are part of M/D’s retinue. In the Womb World Mandala, the Ḍākinī demonesses are placed close to King Yama. On the other hand, Ōkuninushi retires to the land of shades (yūkai 幽界) -- the invisible realm, the world of the unseen – after ceding the land to the heavenly deities. See Y. Zhong, pp. 26-27 for details on Ōkuninushi’s role in the unseen realm. 6. INCIDENTAL. Both have short-sized assistants. Śiva (aka M/D) is served by dwarf-like sprites known as Gaṇa (Slide 9), while Ōkuninushi is assisted in building (taming) the land by a midget deity known as Sukunahikona 少名毘古那 (aka Sukunabiko 少名彦), translated as “Little Name Lad.” 7. INCIDENTAL. Both are associated with theft. M/D is lord of those who steal one’s vital life essence or one’s physical wealth (Slide 10), while Ōkuninushi tames the land with the powerful tools he steals from Susano-o 須佐之男 (i.e., the sword of life, the bow-and-arrow of life, and the heavenly speaking cither). 8. MAJOR. Both carry a big sack. In the Kojiki, Ōkuninushi carries his brothers’ belongings in a sack during their journey to Inaba. 9. MAJOR. Both are associated with rats / mice. M/D’s messenger is a rat (Slides 38-39). In the Kojiki, a mouse saves Ōkuninushi’s life (Book 1, Page 35). For English version, see Kojiki, Book 1, Ch. 23, Philippi, p. 98. The “major” affinities mentioned in items #8 and #9 were employed by Edo-era scholars to explain the conflation of the two deities. See, for example, the Japanese text Kiyū Shōran 嬉遊笑覧 by Kitamuta Nobuyo 喜多村信節 (1783-1856). 10. To borrow from Faure, p. 267: “We never obtain a neat structure à la Lévi Strauss (1908-2009), but an entangled knot that leaves us confused and bewildered. The networks of associations and permutations determine a field of potentialities, within which a precise and composite image becomes fixed.” Notebook. Slides 35 & 36. Condensed Visual Classroom Guide to Daikokuten Iconography in Japan. Copyright Mark Schumacher, 2017. a a Miwa Daimyōjin Engi Quotes from Anna Andreeva’s The Karmic Origins of the Great Bright Miwa Deity, Origins of the Great Bright Miwa Deity Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 65, No. 2, 2010, pp. 273-296 a a Writes scholar Anna Andreeva (pp. 266-267) about the text p. 275. In “The Age of the Gods” section of the Nihon Shoki it says, “Ōnamuchi no Mikoto 大己貴命 Miwa Daimyōjin Engi 三輪大明神緣起 (Origins of the Great spoke to Tenshō Kōtaijin 天照皇大神 [Amaterasu] and said, ‘Now, where do you wish to live?’ She Bright Miwa Deity), dated 1318 CE: replied, ‘I wish to live on Mt. Miwa in the Land of Yamato 大和.’” We therefore know that the descent of a the Miwa Deity happened in the age of the gods. The ninth chapter tells the story of the great patriarch of a Japanese Tendai, Saichō 最澄 (767–822), who is faced with p. 275, footnote 99. The Nihon Shoki passage alluded to here actually appears following the account of the dilemma of finding a powerful deity willing to become the the creation of the land of Izumo by Ōnamuchi and Sukunabiko 少名彦 (see Nihon Shoki, Aston 1972, protector of Mt. Hiei. He first asks Katte 勝手 and Komori 子守, vol. 1, pp. 60–61). Amaterasu never appears in the original Nihon Shoki text. Ōnamuchi asks a the deities of Yoshino, who refuse and advise him to ask the mysterious guest where the latter wishes to live. The unknown deity then replies that it wishes to live on great kami of the north (i.e., to the north of Yoshino). Saichō Mt. Mimoro 三諸 [aka Mt. Miwa] in Yamato. Nihon Shoki goes on to explain that this was the origin of the then goes to Mt. Miwa and is at last able to procure an Miwa deity, and gives an account of its lineage. [Note Schumacher: The “mysterious guest” is none agreement with a powerful kami to be installed on Mt. Hiei. other than Ōnamuchi’s alter ego.] Saichō is thus credited with establishing strong and flourishing a bonds between the deities of Miwa and the Tendai school. pp. 248-249. Several important deities were enshrined on Mt. Miwa and in its vicinity. The deity Here, Miwa Daimyōjin Engi makes a powerful claim regarding Ōnamuchi no Mikoto 大己貴命, the “Great Name Possessor” (also known as Ōkuninushi 大国主, the the supreme position of the kami of Miwa, whose status must “Great Land Owner”), was hailed by both Kojiki and Nihon Shoki as a descendant of Susano-o 須佐之男 therefore match that of the deities installed in the two shrines and creator of the land, or the sub-celestial world. In these records Ōnamuchi often appears at Ise and of the protective deities of Mt. Hiei. The Engi accompanied by a dwarf deity, Sukunabiko 少名彦 (Little Name Lad; aka Sukunahikona 少名毘古那). provides a crucial link between the sacred sites of Miwa and Originally the deities of Izumo, these gods were most likely of continental origin. Both Kojiki and Nihon Hiei by citing the “fact” that Miwa Myōjin manifested itself to Shoki include episodes in which Ōkuninushi (in Nihon Shoki, Ōnamuchi) is met by his own spirit arriving Saichō as Daikoku Tenjin 大黒天神 (aka Daikokuten) while from beyond the sea with a request to be enshrined at Mt.
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